President Trump Calls for Unity, Hope and Massive Economic, Infrastructural and Military Transformation

In stark contrast to the extremely negative campaign he waged well into the days prior to the election, extending even into his gloomy inaugural address, President Donald Trump delivered a highly optimistic and visionary address Tuesday night, his first to the Joint Session of Congress.

It had all the trappings of a State of the Union Address, but it was not. Yet, it could very well have been, given the enthusiastic applauses the address received.

In a highly positive tone, he declared, “The time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us. We just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts, the bravery to express the hopes that stir our souls, and the confidence to turn those hopes and those dreams into action.”

President Trump then outlined a number of initiatives which he pledged to tackle in fulfillment of his campaign promises. Among them, paid family leave, the need to make childcare more affordable, an effort to promote clean air and water; rebuilding the military, for which he said he was asking Congress for US$54 billion; and also US$ 1 trillion to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

He further pledged to end violence that in recent years had claimed and continues to claim the lives of thousands of American youth, especially in Chicago, Baltimore and other cities across the country.

President Trump also pledged to improve the lives, education and social welfare of all American children, especially Black and Latino children, in order to ensure them all a better and more productive future, backed by better education and better jobs.

Everybody, most especially the Congressional audience to whom it was particularly targeted, was somewhat impressed with President Trump’s address. For one thing, it was highly positive and devoid of any vitriolic (acerbic, bitter) rhetoric that characterized his campaign and post-campaign speeches. For this, many reporters credited him for sticking almost completely to his text and avoiding veering off into extemporaneous utterances that have gotten him into trouble in the past.

The President also attempted, without adequate details, to lay out his agenda for the first few years of his administration, and given the tumultuous applauses and standing ovations he received from his predominantly Republican audience, we reckon he might be expecting far greater cooperation from Congress than his predecessor, President Barrack Obama, the nation’s first black President.

In spite of the great disappointment many Americans, especially Democrats and some Independents, felt over Hilary Clinton’s loss, partly attributed to Russian interference, we believe that if President Trump is able to receive congressional approval for a substantial portion of the agenda he laid before them, he may be well on his way to receiving a considerable measure of approbation (approval) from the electorate.

We pray that he will be allowed to proceed with the implementation of this impressive agenda. It would strike a chord of unity in the nation—the unity he so desperately needs to win nationwide acceptance among the electorate.

We further hope that he will also step back from his adversarial relationship with the press, and come to realize that he needs the press more than they need him. How else can he effectively get his messages across to the American people and move positively and steadily with his agenda, which is key to the unity he seeks among his people?

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